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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently